Google: One of the most powerful brands of the world…4th best to work for…Internet’s most visited website…and the saga of success continues for this amazing company.
But when I decided to take a closer look at Google’s innovation success in the past 12 years of their existence and some of their future plans, the picture didn’t seem that rosy as I had expected it to be.
Some of the key issues that I observed during my analysis are:
Are they really successful with their “innovative” products?
Google has released a large number of products in the market over the past. But apart from their Search Engine, Gmail and google maps, most of their products have not done well. Google Chrome has only around 7% of the market share. The Android market share over IPhone is not as impressive as one would have expected. Their Spreadsheet also didn’t do that good business as expected. Their NexusOne mobile phone also tanked in terms of usage and sales. Even one of their biggest revenue generators (youtube) was a result of acquisition. Now with facebook having captured the social networking market completely, and orkut usage dropping every single day, they sure realize the incoming threat. They have to lead the market in innovation if they are to maintain their growth in the long term.
This is known to everyone. Google doesn’t handle the privacy of its users very well. Either through google chrome, cookies, mail snooping or surveillance of wifi networks they have breached the privacy on numerous occasions. Recently, it was disclosed that google had collected about 600 gigabytes of data from users of public WIFI stations during 2006-2010!! They really have a lack of concern for the user data and try to use the data to their maximum advantage.
One thing that will be interesting to observe in future is if google actually innovates more in future or relies more on acquisitions. I expect more leadership in terms of innovation from one of the leading brands in the market.
No comments:
Post a Comment